This isn't what I signed up for! Cooper, he's... gone mad, or something. He acts as if I'm a stranger to him, as if our history together through training didn't happen, as if us meeting the other day didn't happen. I've tried probing him, but he's a P11, always stronger than me and I can't probe him. These walls too, are so thick I can hardly sense the other: what shall I call us? Prisoners? But I did just about make a quick contact with the man being held in the cell next to me, Hank Loffler. At first I thought he was a little strange, but not he seems to be the most normal of us here! We are both worried, scared, damnit! I don't even know if this letter will ever reach you when you're so far away on that space station... I just hope things get better. They've given us these drugs. They are meant to null the nural pain receptors ready for whatever the hell they have planned for us. They been performing tests on me, giving me more injections; and they keep asking if I can move things with my mind. I caught a glimpse of Miss Santos earlier today, she didn't look well; her latino colour had disappeared from her face. I don't like what's going on here.
Jason
August 12th, 2257. Syria Planum. 07:00:
Jason woke to the same ding-dong that he had done for the past few months, it rung at different times. On the first night after an extended session in the lab being researched "with" by Cooper's assistant, a woman by the name of Cassie Masters, he had returned for rest at 04:00, only to be woken again at 05:30 for another long day. Perhaps, Jason conjected, that part of their research was to study the effects of sleep deprivation: either that or they were just on a particularly tight scheduele. When Jason glanced at the leather strapped watch he'd discarded onto the floor space nearest the head of his bed he decided oh-seven-hundred wasn't too bad.
There was the usual tell tale bleeps and chirps from his door's locking mechanism, he was expecting another visit from Ms. Kelsey; she seemed to be head of the facility's security, their part of the facility at any rate. Jason had seen no other Psi Cops during his stay. It was a Psi Cop that stood in the doorway, but it wasn't Ms. Kelsey. A man, short of stature, and slight of build, stood before Ironheart. Despite his size, the look of contempt and his oozing confidence commanded both respect and fear in equal doses.
"Hello Mister Ironheart," the Psi Cop said offering his guinea pig a faint smile.
Jason was standing now, he was ready and dressed in his white uniform. "I am ready to go," Jason said; his soul sounding as if it were broken. He had spent the last few months trying to talk to his friend, former friend Jason corrected himself, Curtis Cooper, but to no avail. The doctor had simply ignored anything Jason said that wouldn't further the work, and Jason had given up trying. In a rare human moment Cooper's assistant, Ms. Masters, had told Jason he'd be free to return home once the experiments were done. Jason didn't have any reason to trust her, but she didn't have any reason to lie either. That was what he decided anyway after thinking about it for hours on end during the various scans he'd endured the previous evening. He just wanted to keep his head down and get out of this place, escape wasn't an option.
"Today," the Psi Cop continued holding out his palm to stop Ironheart from further proceeding out of his room. "Is going to be a little different than what you're used to"
"Oh?" Jason said, his heart said maybe they were letting him go, but his head thought otherwise.
"My name is Mister Bester," the Psi Cop said, seeming to go off on a tanjent. "I am... say, head of Shadow-Psi research here at Syria Planum"
"I've heard of you Mister Bester," Jason said. This seemed to catch the Psi Cop off guard, of course his files were in the Corps registry, his history; the parts of it that weren't classified that is, could be read by anyone: but there was nothing in his OFFICIAL file that made him memorable.
"Is that right?" Bester asked, obviously intrigued by his new found fame.
"I'm a great listener of the grapevine, and your name has come up several times," Jason said.
"Has it?" Bester said, he was obviously stalling, answering everything with another quesiton.
"Yes," Jason answered singularly, he wasn't up for explaining anything anymore.
There was a pause, presumably Bester was waiting to see if Jason would expand, when he didn't Bester eventually continued "As I was saying," he began.
"I'm the head of research here, and I'm very interested in the progress you and your fellow candidates are making"
"Why?" Jason asked, sitting back down on his bed; this seemed to be more of an interrogation than just a simple chat and introduction, but nothing suprised him anymore.
"I haven't been able to move that damned penny anymore than when I started and I still can't get through Kelsey's block"
"You may not notice it but changes are happening, your scans are showing that. We'll be upping your dosage today"
That was bad news, Jason already had more needles going in and out of him during the course of the day than tornado valley had well... tornadoes! "And Miss Santos, I notice, is making excellent progress indeed," Bester continued.
"I wouldn't know, I haven't seen either of the two people I arrived with. The only people I've been allowed to speak to are Ms. Kelsey, Dr. Cooper, his assistant Ms. Masters and a man named Matt Stoner who was undergoing a different treatment and was waiting to use the scanner."
Jason suddenly found himself uninterupted, maybe; just maybe, he thought, this Bester character would listen to his concerns. Worry about his wellbeing; let him go?
"I cannot believe how we are being treated actually!" Jason said, rising from the bed now suddenly confident. His hopes were quickly dashed.
"May I remind you," Bester said sternly, he didn't flinch when Jason came towards him despite his superior physical size. "That you volunteered for these procedures." Jason didn't know how to respond, he wanted to cry out; demand release, tell this Bester fellow this ISNT what he signed up for, but he decided it wouldn't do any good and would just get him in deeper.
"Now," Bester said, calmly his voice down once again. "As I was saying. Miss Santos is making excellent progress, and it is my hope both you and Mister Loffler will make similar progress with your increased dosage"
Bester took a step back, and Ms. Kelsey appeared from out of sight, Jason was suprised; he hadn't sensed anyone there, and she must have heard his entire outburst. Suddenly feeling a little embarressed.
"If you would Mister Ironheart," Kelsey said standing aside and gesturing the African gentleman out of his quarters.
Jason led the way, he knew it well enough by now, toward the main research chambers where he knew Dr. Cooper and Ms. Masters would be awaiting his arrival with their latest batch of needles, poisons, syrums and scanners. Kelsey and Bester walked side-by-side a few steps behind their captive, their vocal cords were rested but their conversation was feverish.
'His dosage is being doubled,' Kelsey reported telepathically, she was more than simple Psi Cop security for Cooper's research, she was Bester's liason. It was her job to fill Mister Bester in on the latest developments in the program. 'We've found a male's make-up seems to resist the alien formula.'
'If his body continues to resist sedate him and we'll have to proceed with phase 2 of the program,' Bester decided.
'Direct grafting of Shadow technology into his mind?' for a moment Kelsey forget her place, even she wasn't expecting Bester to actually give phase 2 the go-ahead. All previous attempts to merge Shadow technology with human flesh had met with disasterous results, and she didn't know this time would be any different.
'Problem Ms. Kelsey?'
'None at all sir,' she replied looking at her superior officer with a neutral professional look, she hoped with gratify Bester's need for loyality.
'Miss Santos however,' Kelsey continued, 'Is progressing nicely. She successfully levitated two bar stools yesterday'
'She looks gaunt,' Bester stated categorically, Kelsey knew Santos' health was not Bester's primary concern; more the success of the program that was reliant on her survival.
'Her treatment leaves her unable to disgest solids sir. There is only so much nutrition that can be allocated through drips and a like'
'Make sure she survives for Phase 2. I want to see how far we can push her mental abilities," Bester smirked, believing he himself couldn't be anymore brilliant.
'Have the evaluators give her a current P rating?" Bester asked out of interest as they rounded the last corner before they and Jason entered the research lab.
"P19," Kelsey said out loud as the gleaming white doors sensed people approaching and automatically swung open.
"I will be observing from the Control Centre," Bester said, addressing Jason. "Be seeing you," he said giving an odd little salute to his subject before heading off down an alternate corridor.
"Your tests will be very intensive today," Kelsey explained as she led him into the labratory. A room whose floors were as white as the ceiling, tables and chairs, the labaratory was a large room by any measure; but it was one of many in Syria Planum's expansive testing facility, half domed, half carved into the side of a martian clifface. In it's centre was a large ominous looking half-bed, half-chair device with a hundred and one different controls and levers. Too movable lights on hand operated metal arms were also attached to it, reminding Jason of a dentistry. All around the room were various test tubes, some empty, some containing blood samples, some housing not so friendly looking liquids, ranging from luminous green to the deepest of blacks. The room's only occupants were Kelsey and Jason.
"And you will be expected to make progress. Mister Bester is watching"
"I couldn't give a wooden nickel whether Mister Bester is watching or not!" Jason burst out, turning toward his watcher and gesturing with his arms to make poinant his frustrations. "It's not like I'm fighting against the treatments. I volunteered for this... remember," he said those last words with complete insincerity. Was it the drugs, Jason thought, the lack of sleep or a side effect of the treatments, but he was getting snappy and less and less inclined to simply do what his captors told him and hope for the best. Was escape an option?
"Where's the doctor and Ms. Masters?" Jason asked, after he'd calmed down slightly. Although conversation was hard with Ms. Kelsey Jason had found her surprisingly helpful and forth coming with non-classified information such as that.
"On their way. They'll be escorting Mister Loffler"
"Rick too?" Jason said, almost with a smile; finally he might get the chance to talk about his dier situation with someone going through the exact same traumatic experience.
They didn't have to wait long. Cooper led the way, with Masters pushing the wheelchair Loffler was strapped in behind him. Rick was rocking back and forth slightly, as much as his restraints allowed, muttering to himself. Do I look that bad? Jason wondered to him.
'Yes,' a telepathic voice went off in his head, who was it?
'Rick?' he replied telepathically.
'The one and only'
'What have they done to you Rick'
No response came for a moment, Masters deposited the wheelchair next the main operation table in the centre of the room and went to converse with Doctor Cooper and Ms. Kelsey.
'Same thing they're about to do to you,' he replied solemnly.
'I was a commercial before this you know,' Rick continued; as if wanted to besote what he'd learnt in life before he bit the bullet. 'I was happy... I had a wife, my second actually! I had a life'
'Why did you volunteer then?' Jason asked. His question had been directed at Loffler, but really he was asking himself it as well: how could he have been so foolish, just up and leaving everything he'd built, everything he'd worked for.
'I didn't, neither did Santos. We were both selected. One day I came back to work and they said I'd be reassigned. I work for The Mix you see, and you just kinda go wherever they send you'
'And this is where they sent you'
'Correct. Whoever is running the show must have his hands in all sectors of the Corps to bring in people from different sectors.'
"Right," interjected Cooper, speaking verbally, if he'd heard Loffler and Ironheart's psychic conversation he didn't let on. "Good morning gentlemen, as I explained to you Mister Loffler on your trip here, and I believe Ms. Kelsey explained to you on your trip here Mister Ironheart, that we are increasing the dosages and frequency of your treatments"
Jason's eyes darted around the room, this was it: he was going to get up mad... or strained, and slowly rocking back and forth until he died just like Loffler. He didn't want that, he couldn't let that happen... Little did Bester and Kelsey know Jason had been telepathically eavsdropping on their conversation in the corridor, and he knew Santos wasn't fairing much better. Maybe she had volunteered for this, being a Psi Cop, maybe she hadn't: but Jason was convinced she wouldn't want to stay here any longer. Someone had to act.
Perhaps he read his mind, perhaps he just saw it in his eyes but all of a sudden Loffler spoke audiably. It was for Jason's ears, but everyone heard it. "We're getting out of here"
Before anyone go react, Loffler threw off his restraints with a massive physical effort. Kelsey reached for his PPG, but was knocked aside as Loffler ran toward Masters. Jason was stood now, he was no longer indesicive, he knew what he had to do: Escape, but he didn't want to hurt people to achieve that. Soon he realized he'd have no choice. Everything seemed to suddenly slow down, Loffler's gradual run toward Cooper's assistant as she tried to scramble to the alarm buzzer was about to be interupted as Cooper reached under his lab coat and began to draw a PPG... one that would rip through the flesh of Loffler with one him and again Jason would be on his own.
"You aren't the same man I once knew," Jason said, his voice yelling, "And I've got to stop the monster you've become! I'm sorry!"
Cooper's arm was raised, and his finger was about to squeeze the trigger when suddenly he burst into flames. He cried out in unimaginable agony as his very skin fueled the burning fire that enveloped his body. Loffler had stopped Masters from reaching the buzzer, and now rushed to Jason's side; who had collapsed, grasping his head.
"Pyrokenesis," Loffler said, he was smiling as he understood their escape was nigh. Jason, however, was not, he knew their escape was coming at a cost.
The two captive telepaths stood together and headed towards the room's only door, leaving an unconscious Masters, a lightly stunned Kelsey and a smoldering pile of ashes that had been Cooper.